Bonkers Blog May 2011

After Notomob member Nigel Wise’s success in
driving Richmond’s uncertified gestapo wagons off the road
attentions were turned to several other councils, among them Wirral, Southwark and Bexley. At the first
two correspondence is on-going but in Bexley everyone has gone to ground.
Craske went into idiot mode,
or should that be remained in idiot mode, and gave a
one sentence reply
that didnt answer any question, just passed the buck, and Greg Tippett the
Assistant Parking Manager didn’t respond at all. A complaint about
that to Will Tuckley the Chief Executive has also resulted in a stony silence.
Another good illustration of how his near quarter million pound salary package is
money straight down the drain and not the “good value” the delusional council
leader believes it to be; and another example of how Bexley
council treats residents and non-residents alike with contempt.

Southwark council has pulled
the stunt I forecast and persuaded the Vehicle
Certification Authority to back date their certificates.
An FOI has gone into them
requesting copies of all the correspondence between the council and the VCA.

For the benefit of Notomob members who spent
last Saturday assisting
Bexley council carry out its obligations lawfully
a page of pictures has
been added to Bonkers. At present it consists of all the photographs taken and
many are near duplicates. It will be edited in a week’s time after Notomob have
taken any they might need.

Freedom of Information

On all sides Bexley’s secretive council has put up
barriers to questioning but FOI requests have legal backing; not that that has
stopped them hatching plans to circumvent the law.
One thing they appear to be doing now as a matter of routine is to delay answering
questions to close to the prescribed 20 day timetable; this needs to be monitored.
I have therefore
published a page which lists those FOIs
I know of and the associated dates. The page is currently almost empty but I aim to
populate it as soon as I can so that everyone can see if Bexley council
is satisfying its legal obligations.

An FOI has recently gone to the council asking how many are currently
outstanding beyond the 20 day limit. In future all FOI requests made by members
of the Bonkers Team which go to day 21 will be notified to the Information
Commissioner so that he is fully aware of Bexley council’s failures.

The list of FOIs is available from the Miscellaneous Menu on the main site
pages. i.e. not the Blog pages.

Police Harassment

An acknowledgement of my complaint to the Metropolitan
Police Professional Standards Directorate about Bexleyheath police refusing to
tell me who had complained about this blog and what the specific complaint was
was received yesterday. The delay is not as long as it might appear due to
intervening Bank Holidays and the fact that my printer failed while printing the
complaint and it took about a week to choose and install a new one.

Councillors’ Addresses

The FOI seeking electoral details of current councillors’
electoral nomination papers so that their addresses can be put on line when
the council starts to publish residents addresses on their website is still unanswered.
There can be no excuse for this, it is very easy to comply and will be the
subject of a complaint to the Information Commissioner if the 20 day deadline is
exceeded. Meanwhile alternative sources of information are being pursued. The
final decision to publish residents’ addresses will I believe be taken by council this
evening and I may choose to publish the addresses already obtained immediately
depending on what I hear in the chamber.

Comparison with Bromley

A reader from Bromley sent me some information about how
his council proposed to use fixed CCTV cameras for parking control in Petts Wood
and how they dealt with the public reaction to it. Like in Bexley, CCTV was
installed on the pretext of being for personal safety but that doesn’t raise
money. In response to a petition organised by residents Bromley council debated
the issue and decided against persecuting motorists and damaging businesses.
Contrast that with Bexley where an identical plan was proposed by councillor
Craske as part of Strategy 2014 (the cuts!) and it went through as a
bundle of revenue raising measures with no public debate whatsoever. No member
of the public had an opportunity to comment on any part of Craske’s proposals. Par for the course in Bexley
where, as Mr. Shering said
in The Shopper last week,
“Council forgets the basics of democracy”.